There are always a lot of questions regarding what we can do if we see homeless people, and it is also very significant what we MUSTN’T do. Here is a little help, please share it so that the information can reach a lot of people.

What can you do?/How can you help?

Call the dispatcher service if you see homeless people
– without his/her belongings (blankets or covers)
– with wet cloths/belongings
– with unusual behaviour (e.g. he/she has not got up for a long time)
– who needs information (You can inform the homeless person where he/she can eat, sleep, have a bath, arrange his/her things, but you can give accurate and actual information only having it checked with the dispatcher service.)

If you would like to report an incident to the dispatcher service, please share the following information:
– accurate (!) place
– the reported person’s sex, age, name (if known), circumstances, condition
– if you talk to him/her, please ask what kind of help he/she needs

Menhely Dispatcher phone number (Budapest): 0613384186
Save it to your mobile! If you hear music for a while, do not give up, the calls are lined up, and you will next sooner or later!

Do not call the dispatcher service, but the Ambulance, if the homeless person is unconscious, bleeding; you see signs of injury, accident, poisoning on him/her; in case of choke, breathing difficulty, limb paralysis, inability to walk, abnormal behaviour (unsafe to self and public); if you suspect hypothermia (he/she is probably lying in wet clothes/belongings for a long time, slowed down, weak, perhaps disturbed); in case of serious drunkenness, or being numb (you can communicate with her very tryingly or you cannot at all).

Ambulance phone number: 104
Emergency phone number: 112

What you MUSTN’T (!) do when you see homeless people and you would like to help:
– Do not put into a car, do not transport, do not move the homeless person – leave it to the experts! It can be harmful to the homeless person (for example in case of drunkenness and hypothermia he/she may collapse). It is not sure you know the institutions (the condition of the patient, the institution’s profile, actual service and the criteria of entry).
– Do not take him/her to your home! (You do not know the person and his/her behaviour – it is not a solution for this situation.)

Temperature will drastically drop from Saturday, so we ask everyone to put your reserved resources in motion, and pay even more attention to the homeless!

Besides riding our bikes, between Saturday and Thursday we will use cars as well in order to reach the highest possible number of people with hot tea, blankets, sleeping bags and food.

We ask you to please donate the following items, which we can deliver to shelters or to those living on the street: blankets, polyfoam, sleeping bags, raincoats, insulation foil, gloves, socks, backpacks – can be used but in good condition, not torn! – there is a great demand for these, since it can be used for storing their belongings, bottled water or other bottled drinks (non-alcoholic), Vitamin C, sandwich spreads, canned soup and other canned prepared food, sandwich ingredients: !sliced! bread, margarine, cucumber, radish, cold cuts, etc.

You can bring your donations starting from noon, on the 22nd of February at V. Károly Krt 10.

Schedule: receiving donations between 22 February – 1 March every day, between noon and 9 pm, sandwich preparation: Saturday and Sunday between 4 and 9 pm, Monday to Thursday between 6 and 9 pm.

We were offered a place by Dürer Program House in one of their buildings’ basement. We emptied the 60 square meters in 5 hours, and worked up our NEW STORAGE!

We were helped with the stowage by 2 homeless people, and we thanked their work with a salary and a gift pack. We are very happy with this opportunity, as we are offered a lot of furniture for the flat renovations which need to be stored somewhere.

Thanks to GAMMO Europe Kft. for the pallets, to Levente Bicskey and his colleagues for the opportunity, to Endre Sarkadi Nagy, to Feri and András, and to the volunteers of BBM for the help. You are awesome!

With your support, we distribute tens of thousands of meals, blankets and other donations to those in need.

We at Bike Maffia strive to keep administrative costs as low as we can, and our main goal is still to hand out as many donations for the indigent as possible. At our events, volunteers deliver the donations, but from time to time we need to do some shopping. For instance, more than once a week we need to buy additional ingredients for the sandwich making and cooking projects, and we need supplements (foodboxes, cutlery, wrapping materials, etc.) for the deliveries. As our organization is growing rapidly, at times we cannot avoid certain expenses, such as the salary of courier(s) in the +1 Sandwich program.

Enter our club of sponsors and become a member of the family! We are thankful for your support and shares!

Very big thanks to the team of Budapest Park and Necc Party! On the coolest summer party they offered an amount of the sale of every ticket, thanks to which they supported the start of the next flat’s renovation with 1,136,000 HUF. Huge help, huge high five!

During the party, you donated 491,000 HUF to make sure the next apartment we renovate will be a real home for the selected family. ☺ Thank you all! The selection process is under way, we will let you in on the details soon! Until then, find all info here.

Let us invite you to a truly special event: this night, a bunch of awesome musicians will perform to support a Budapest Bike Maffia project, which helps families in need.
„Sweet home” is a creative social project, in which council houses are renovated, and the living conditions of families are improved with the help of both professionals and volunteers.

How does the family like it? How does the new flat look like? Who worked on it and how much?
It all turns out from the movie!

It took a lot of organizing job and a lot of work to make the first municipal rented flat renovation
ready. We made it more economical, livable and nicer. It will be important in the future not only
from a material point of view, but also from a mental perspective. What we mean – it also turns
out from the video.

A very big thank to everyone, who participated in this project to make it successful!
For the money to Kocsmajális, Tilos Rádió and the party lineup:
DJ Titusz, Palotai Zsolt, Cadik, Mango, MC Busa, Mc Fedora, Nixon István Mustbeat, Clairvo
Muatbeat, DJ Ren, carl oh, Slanki, Zomblaze, VANIS, Eclipse. Also for the monetary donation to
Kriszta Szalai, to Kisüzem, to Tamás Jutasi and his children and to the private donators!
For the material donations to Tamás Köteles, to Levente Bicskey, to Eleonóra Nagy.

If you would like to donate our work to renovate more homes for more families, then please send
money to the bank account of a Bike Maffia. Transfer note: “Sweet Home”
Data:
Bike Maffia Association
Account No:16200151-18519259
IBAN: HU46162001511851925900000000 – Swift BIC: HBWEHUHB
Thank you!

Check out the before-after photos of the apartment renovated through our Sweet Home project! See how much friendlier and more livable it is now? An important goal was not only to renovate it but to also make it more economical, so the monthly utility bills become more affordable, too. More photos to come!

Magdi lives with her two daughters in a municipal social apartment. When they moved in last year, the flat was not in a livable state, that time with narrow circumstances the family could only afford smaller reparations and painting.

Doors and windows were not insulated, the heating did not work, there was not proper lighting, the stove and the washing machine broke down, there was not a usable sink and desk in the kitchen. The boiler also needed reparation and the taps were dripping.

With the help of Bike Maffia more than 1.300.000 Ft will be spent to make the 38 square meter apartment new and more sustainable, with a nicer and more livable environment for the family. By July – with the cooperation of professionals and volunteers – the windows are changed, the front door is insulated, the kitchen is refurbished, the household appliances are replaced together with the inside of the boiler and the convector and the taps are also new. The boiler is switched to night power, the old wires and unsafe switches and sockets are replaced. Lamps are installed in the room.

To store the household machines, building material and the furniture we needed a storage, which was prepared by three tenants of the shelter of Táblás street with keen cooperation of our volunteers.

We are moving on with the renovation work: painting and rearrangement is what follows.